What captures the essence of the work of the world’s freshwater laboratory over the past year?

What story do we want to tell the rest of the world—from the towns of northwestern Ontario to the grand cities that border the African Great Lakes?

This year’s decision was relatively straightforward, as we felt that it was high time to pay tribute to the handcrafted, do-it-yourself attitude that has made IISD Experimental Lakes Area the world’s freshwater laboratory.

Over the next few pages, discover all about the creative, innovative spirit that inspires all that we do, with some examples you can even try at home for yourselves.

This report explores how nature-based infrastructure (NBI) responds to pressing urban challenges and supports the creation of sustainable cities. It starts by illustrating what makes cities sustainable and the potential role of NBI. Next, it summarizes research findings about the value of four NBI types for sustainable urban infrastructure: urban green spaces, green roofs, stormwater infrastructure, and wetlands and lakes. The literature review is complemented by selected NBI case studies that have been assessed with the Sustainable Asset Valuation (SAVi) methodology. Finally, the report concludes by arguing that sustainable cities require strategic, cross-sectoral urban infrastructure planning with nature at its core.

Key messages:

• Urban development—if done unsustainably—is one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss. Population growth in cities makes infrastructure needs in urban areas particularly high and places enormous pressure on the environment. Climate change further exacerbates this impact.
• Building with—rather than against—nature has direct benefits for cities. Nature-based infrastructure (NBI) provides cost-effective and climate-resilient infrastructure solutions and generates a wealth of co-benefits for citizens, such as reduced air pollution and improved well-being.
• NBI in cities is, on average, 42% cheaper and creates 36% more value than relying only on grey infrastructure if avoided costs and co-benefits are taken into account. Case studies by the NBI Global Resource Centre show that for each dollar invested, NBI in cities can generate up to 30 times that amount in returns for society, making investments in urban nature economically viable.
• Building with nature also supports investments in other sustainable infrastructure, such as mobility, water, and energy, by increasing their resilience and effectiveness. Additional research is required to better understand and quantify these benefits and fully leverage nature’s contribution to sustainable cities.
• To make the most of the benefits of NBI, the value of nature must be at the heart of strategic, cross-sectoral urban planning. Planners, policy-makers, and budget holders need to use a systemic perspective to understand how to best maximize the benefits of NBI for sustainable cities.

On June 23, 2022, The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) hosted a full-day virtual workshop on monitoring and modelling for water retention projects across the Canadian Prairies. The meeting was designed to be a place to share, receive feedback, and determine collaboration opportunities with respect to existing, ongoing, or proposed water retention projects. Participants from government and non-governmental organizations, academia, and industry were all invited to participate. In total, the workshop provided nine different presentations for 20 attendees and ended with a discussion session to identify opportunities and next steps in the areas of advancing water retention science and business case development. Presentations ranged from foundational historical research, like for those water retention structures monitored as part of the Watershed Evaluation of Beneficial Management Practices (WEBs) program, to how technologies like spectral sensors are being used to advance the state of the art in water retention monitoring and modelling today. This document summarizes those talks and key takeaways from the workshop's final discussion session.

Once used as a form of currency by the Mayans and Aztecs, cocoa is now a beloved staple in many households as the key ingredient of chocolate. The cocoa sector provides a livelihood for up to 50 million people, primarily in developing countries, as they transform cocoa beans into chocolate liquor, butter, or powder for use in cosmetics, chocolate, and other edibles.

Voluntary sustainability standards (VSSs) emerged in the sector over 20 years ago, providing consumers with more sustainable cocoa purchasing options while addressing the sector’s challenges.

The cocoa market experienced record-breaking growth in global supply over the last decade, but the COVID-19 pandemic, political and economic unrest, low farm gate prices, and difficult agricultural conditions are expected to reduce supplies in the coming years. Climate change is also disrupting the global cocoa value chain as regions in major producing countries become less suitable due to high temperatures or severe droughts. For instance, West Africa saw a 5.5% drop in cocoa production from 2018 to 2019.

Our research dives into sustainable production and consumption trends in the cocoa sector, analyzing how VSSs can enhance farmers’ livelihoods by improving farm gate prices and incomes, supporting climate resilience, promoting better trade relations, and fostering price transparency across the value chain to fuel a more sustainable global cocoa sector.

Erosion and land degradation, combined with other social and environmental factors, has damaged soil fertility, reduced livestock quantity and quality, increased flood risk, and lowered food security in Ethiopia. Climate change will exacerbate these impacts. ANR, a process by which people create conditions that promote regrowth and allow land to regenerate on its own, is one strategy to address these challenges.

This SAVi assessment values the societal costs and benefits of an ongoing restoration project that began in 2016 and consists of ANR on 2,868 hectares in southern Ethiopia. Working with the New Climate Economy, we monetized planting and maintenance costs, encroachment penalties, wages, carbon credits, and income associated with this project. We then calculated the net benefits, benefit-to-cost ratio, net present value (NPV), and internal rate of return (IRR), both with and without carbon credits. We show that ANR can be an effective and investment-worthy strategy in Ethiopia to combat land degradation, support rural livelihoods, and increase resilience, adaptation, and mitigation in relation to climate change. These results can support efforts to scale up land restoration in Ethiopia by informing decision-making processes and influencing policies.

The Mexican mining sector is large, diverse, and ancient. Mexico today leads the world in silver production and is in the top 10 producing countries for 17 minerals. Considering both foreign and local investments in the sector, the government manages 24,000 mining concessions. This report was conducted at the request of the Mexican government, a member of the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF), which IISD has hosted since 2015.

This report assesses the country’s preparedness and capacity to implement the IGF’s Mining Policy Framework (MPF) and focuses on the MPF’s six mining key policy areas.

The IGF assessment team reviewed mining laws, policies, and contracts and conducted in-country interviews and field visits. This report identifies key strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations for better mining laws and policies to promote a more sustainable mining sector in Mexico

There are numerous ways to analyze and document the potential and ongoing impacts of a mining operation on people from different genders, ages, and sociocultural backgrounds.

This report takes stock of the toolkits, guidelines, and legal frameworks that have been devised and used by governments, international organizations, and civil society organizations to identify and address the gendered impacts of mining operations. It also features three case studies where these tools have been applied.

The main finding of this report is that governments, mining companies, and other stakeholders do not conduct sufficient comprehensive, systemic, and structured gender analysis before and during all phases of the mining project cycle.

Addressing the urgent planetary crises of biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution will require strong and durable efforts to harness trade and trade policy for sustainable development across its social, environmental, and economic dimensions. Aid for Trade (A4T) should be viewed as a vital part of the policy toolkit for trade and trade policies that advance sustainable development and respond to urgent environmental crises.

Greening A4T requires a nuanced approach that pursues simultaneous action through six complementary pathways underpinned by the sustainable development priorities of developing and least developed countries: mainstreaming environmental goals into A4T; securing new resources for environment-related A4T support; fostering coherence between A4T and broader global policy agendas; ensuring A4T monitoring captures the environmental purpose and impact of A4T projects; integrating trade considerations into climate and environment funding; and strengthening South–South cooperation. Investing in national processes in both developed and developing countries will be essential for integrated decision making and stakeholder consultation on the role of trade and trade policies in sustainable development—and the environment-related and A4T priorities that flow from these.

The world must set itself on a pathway consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5°C to avoid the most disruptive and tragic consequences of climate change on people, ecosystems, and economies. This is extremely urgent and every fraction of a degree matters: at present rates of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the world’s remaining carbon budget will be extinguished in approximately 8 years. The world can still achieve the 1.5°C goal, but the window to do so is narrowing quickly. Governments must urgently exceed the ambition of their current Paris Agreement pledges.

This report provides the first-ever comparison of large numbers of climate and energy pathways from various institutions to outline what is needed to limit global warming to 1.5°C. It provides an assessment of the energy policies required to align with scenarios reviewed by the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, those produced by intergovernmental organizations such as the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and by prominent scenarios designed by private sector consultancies.

The report finds a high degree of alignment between scenarios, and draws key conclusions on:

• The required phase-out pathways for oil and gas production between now and 2050, at the global level.
• The required levels of solar and wind energy deployment to substitute fossil energy production, at both global and regional levels.
• The investment gaps between current and planned spending and the investment needed to achieve Paris-aligned investment pathways, both globally and regionally.

Moreover, the report outlines the expected impacts of the war in Ukraine on renewable energy, addresses the role of the private sector in the energy transition, and recommends a number of actions that governments, investors, and financial institutions can take in order to align with 1.5°C scenarios.

This report provides a detailed legal analysis of selected key aspects of the agreement in principle on the modernization of the ECT concluded on June 24, 2022, and subsequently leaked on Politico in September.

Our analysis confirms that while the Energy Charter Treaty’s contracting parties have addressed some of the existing treaty’s flaws, the reforms do not go far enough to make the treaty fit for supporting the energy transition or global climate action goals. The modernization also fails to address some of the key challenges that host states face when regulating in the public interest, including when taking action to tackle the climate crisis. 

Ultimately, the reforms remain too modest, too untested, and too piecemeal to resolve many of the current treaty’s flaws and ensure that the modernized treaty will not stand in the way of governments’ ability to pursue ambitious climate mitigation measures.

Our analysis considers, among other facets: 

• What the fossil fuel carve-outs for the EU and United Kingdom mean in practice, and what protections fossil fuel investors from other contracting parties will continue to have. 
• The lack of any greater flexibility for contracting parties to make carve-outs for fossil fuel investment protection after the November vote of the Energy Charter Conference, relative to the existing treaty.
• The extended scope of the treaty to cover new energy materials and carbon capture and storage technologies, and what this means for states’ flexibility when regulating new energy technologies.
• The modernized treaty’s investment protection standards and what they mean for shielding public policy.
• The lack of systemic reform of investor-state dispute settlement, compensation standards, and valuation techniques.
• The implications of the modernized ECT’s 20-year survival clause, which remains intact from the original treaty.
• Various aspects of the reforms that leave open crucial legal questions or fail to reflect recent treaty practice in the European Union.